


Reason

by archangelwithashotgun



Series: Tumblr Prompts [43]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Archangel Gabriel (Supernatural), Crying Sam, Emotional Hurt, Emotionally Hurt Sam, Established Gabriel/Sam Winchester, Gabriel Lives, Human Gabriel, Hurt Gabriel, Injury, M/M, One Shot, Powerlessness, Sabriel - Freeform, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-09 15:04:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6912076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archangelwithashotgun/pseuds/archangelwithashotgun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr Prompt: Sabriel and "Reacting to the other one crying about something."</p>
<p>Gabriel recklessly gets hurt, and Sam cannot find the strength to keep fighting him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reason

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Sam muttered, taking the rag soaked with hydrogen peroxide and gently pressing it against the gash on Gabriel’s shoulder.

After the Fall, Gabriel had managed to find his way over to where the Winchesters resided in the Bunker, hair tousled and eyes frantic with confusion, but otherwise looking no worse for wear. It was later that evening when Gabriel had revealed while he still had his powers, they were incredibly unstable; one moment he would be at his full archangel potential, and the next he would either have the power equivalent to that of a seraph, or his powers would fail to work entirely.

Neither Gabriel nor Castiel knew what to make of it, and neither of them knew how to fix it either. This had prompted Sam to log more hours in the Men of Letters’ library to look for an answer. To the hunter’s surprise, Gabriel had joined him in his research more often than not, the former Trickster for once being solemnly serious as he scanned whatever book he could find for a solution to his predicament.

On top of that, Gabriel had started to join them on hunts, which posed another problem: Gabriel channeled his rage towards the monsters they were battling, which was a generally a good thing, but rage with his recklessness and over-the-top cockiness made for many outcomes where Gabriel was severely injured.

Whenever Gabriel would have a reasonable amount of power within him, he would be able to heal himself, no problem. But his recklessness stemmed from the times he had _no_ power inside him _at all_ , and as a result of his essentially ‘human’ state, Gabriel would jump into dangerous situations and was always at risk of bleeding out or infection or shock or even worse.

Today, it had been a vampire. The turned woman had wrapped herself up in Gabriel and had taken a large bite out of the archangel’s shoulder before Dean was able to kill her with a clean swipe of his machete.

And Gabriel had turned to Sam, panting, bleeding, and he had _grinned_.

That goddamned idiot had _grinned_ at him.

Sam _hated_ it. Hated that Gabriel could have such little no regard for his own safety. Hated that Gabriel saw nothing wrong with making Sam nurse him back to health after every hunt. Hated that Gabriel couldn’t see just how much this was _killing_ Sam to see the archangel like this.

Sam had brought it up to Gabriel on multiple occasions, trying to get the archangel to see just what this was doing to both him and Sam without actually saying the exact words out loud; Lord knew that Gabriel would openly mock him even more for that than he already did.

But every time, his concerns were brushed off, that infuriating grin plastered on Gabriel’s face.

There was only so many times Sam could take that dismissive behavior before he was just… done.

Gabriel sucked in a hiss of pain, brows furrowing as he winced against the slapping sting of the rag on his wound.

“It’s not like she would’ve been able to do anything,” Gabriel grunted. “Vamp bites don’t turn anyone.”

“No, but they can _kill_ you if you’re not careful,” Sam replied shortly, his jaw clenching.

“But she didn’t,” Gabriel pointed out, a smirk pulling at the right corner of his mouth.

“That’s not the point,” Sam bit out, swiping the rag through the wound once more.

Gabriel threw his head back and gave a groaning sigh. “Arghhh, are we gonna have one of those talks again? Where you say your piece about how I shouldn’t throw myself into dangerous situations and are a huge hypocrite since I see that you have no qualms about you or Dean doing the same?”

Sam shook his head. “No.”

Gabriel’s brows shot up, clearly surprised. “No?”

“No,” Sam repeated, tossing the bloody rag to the side as he grabbed the needle and thread from the first aid box. “I’ve already said everything I needed to say. I’m just… I’m done.”

The archangel was stunned into silence at the lack of fight coming from the hunter, and Sam carefully began to close Gabriel’s wound with the thread.

The two of them remained in a thick silence for a long while as Sam continued to place stitch after stitch to Gabriel’s shoulder. Sam felt completely numb from feeling, his mind a cloud, muddled mess from the emotional turmoil he was undergoing, and he almost missed Gabriel’s exclamation.

“Are you… Are you _crying_?” Gabriel asked, eyes growing wide and shining with bewilderment.

Flinching out of his stupor, Sam became aware of the cool air hitting his wet cheeks, of hot trails of tears cascading down his face, and of his suddenly blurred vision. Gabriel was right; he was crying. Sam blinked hard and pressed his lips together, tasting a bit of saltiness from the tears that had slipped past his mouth, but made no move to clear his face. Instead, he turned back to Gabriel’s shoulder and continued the stitches.

It was only after he finally tied off the last stitch, cut off the excess thread, and wiped the sutures with a freshly soaked rag that Sam finally looked up to meet Gabriel’s eyes. The archangel looked highly disturbed, and as the hunter turned to face him, his expression hardened and Gabriel’s hand shot forward to grip Sam’s jaw firmly.

“Don’t… Don’t you dare _cry_ over _me_ , Sam,” Gabriel grinded out, the muscles in his neck and jawline fluctuating.

As if his body was choosing to ignore Gabriel, this statement merely caused fresh, hot tears to fall down reddened cheeks, and Sam sniffled.

“Then don’t give me reason to?” Sam replied, uncaring of how pathetically weak and shaky and pleading his voice sounded.

Gabriel gave a minor start, his face stiffening in shock. Sam only offered him a tiny, sad smile, his eyes continuing to spill liquid grief down his cheeks.

A moment later, Gabriel sighed, and it was as if all of the fight and tension seeped out of Gabriel’s body at once as he sagged down in an almost defeated posture. Then the archangel looked up, wordlessly nodded, and gently brought Sam in for a careful embrace.

Minding his stitching job on Gabriel’s shoulder, Sam sank into the hug gratefully. He burrowed his tear-stained face into the warmth of Gabriel’s neck, feeling the pulse of Gabriel’s carotid beating strong and sure against Sam’s nose, and his lungs released a long, quivering sigh.


End file.
